March 24, 2011
At Solar 2011, its National Solar Conference in Raleigh, NC in May, the American Solar Energy Society is offering one of industry’s most comprehensive and affordable training opportunities for solar installers.
In partnership with National Solar Trainers – a leading solar educator – ASES’s SOLAR AND YOU! training will provide installers and other interested participants exceptional skill development in advanced topics. These will include solar technology, business management, market trends, residential and commercial installation. The training sessions will take place at the beginning of the conference on May 16 and 17.
“If there were just one professional development event a person currently working in, or interested in working in, solar power should attend, this is it,” commented Mark Thornbloom of Florida’s Kelelo Engineering. “This is where people can develop in-demand skills, forge valuable new connections and advance their solar careers.”
Now in its 40th year, the National Solar Conference is the longest-running event for solar energy professionals in the U.S. The SOLAR 2011 program has been developed by solar energy experts in all topical areas – technology, buildings, policy, professional education, workforce development and consumer education. More than 5,000 attendees are expected.
“National Solar Trainers has trained thousands of people” explained Lars Rudstam, the company’s marketing manager. “This is the best program we’ve ever created.”
“We strongly encourage early registration for our SOLAR AND YOU! training, as we only have capacity for 350,” said Kate Hotchkiss of ASES, the National Solar Conference Director. “Training sessions we have offered with larger capacity at recent national conferences have sold out weeks before the conference started.”
The conference will also provide a “Green Career Resource Center”, staffed by the NC Capital Area Workforce Development Board’s JobLink Career Center at Raleigh. Green job seekers will find employment listings, resume and interview advice, and more.
Registration for SOLAR AND YOU! training begins soon. Starting March 28, click here to register.
March 23, 2011
Colorado’s recent experience highlights the uneven performance and attitudes among the nation’s electric utilities on the subject of promoting solar power in their service areas. For while Colorado is known to have one of the best net metering regimes in the country and a generally pro-renewables attitude in government, the state’s main investor-owned utility last month treated its own Solar*Rewards program like a diseased limb and cut it off peremptorily.
When Xcel Energy effectively and with virtually no warning suspended its solar program, under which solar array owners had been rebated $2.35 per watt, local solar industry groups protested, citing likely large-scale layoffs due to loss of business. The state public utilities commission gave both sides until mid-March to come to an acceptable agreement; the agreement reached shifts the emphasis of the program from rebates to performance-based payments in four steps. Rebates will decline from $1.75 per watt to zero, and performance-based incentives will ramp up from $0.04 to $0.14 per kW-hr (for residential systems) as capacity is added. When 60 megawatts of new capacity have been added under the plan, Xcel will have reached full compliance with the retail distributed generation standard through the year 2019 and the rebates will zero out.
Performance-based payments will also drive the incentive program for third-party owned ($0.16 per kW-hr.) and mid-sized systems ($0.15 per kW-hr.)
A Changed Paradigm
The shift to performance-based rather than upfront payments follows trends at work in other parts of the country, notably New Jersey, where the program for larger systems is entirely based on earned solar renewable energy certificates. This spreads the financial impact on ratepayers and taxpayers out over a longer period and is more responsive to market conditions. It’s difficult to fault the transition to a system that’s based on results rather than intent. The rate being offered by Excel is several times smaller than that in New Jersey, but the Colorado Utility is facing a shortfall of $100 million between collections and payments under its existing program, and needs to address both its financial situation and its obligations under the state’s renewable portfolio standard. (more…)
March 23, 2011
The further away one gets from the burning heat of the American southwest, the more one hears the complaint that this or that state isn’t suitable for solar power. Not enough sun. Not enough land to spare. Too cloudy. Too cold to go up on the roof. Huh?
We get tired of pointing out how bullish they are in Oregon and Washington on the subject of community solar, or how Germany, 500 miles further north than most of us, has more PV installed than anywhere else. So we’ll take a look at Ontario, Canada, a province that, according to ClearSky Advisors Inc., may become the #1 solar PV market on the North American continent this year. In raw figures, this means solar installations of up to 455 MW, nearly double the amount to be built in the U.S.’s largest market, California. But how sustainable will this be? (more…)
